I’m reading the Sandman right now, and a character talking to Julius Caesar praised him for giving the people cheap corn.
The Columbian exchange didn’t occur for a millennium and a half. Literally unreadable. Sorry Neil, I can’t continue reading this.
The word Caesar used in latin, in his book on the Gallic Wars is Frumentum, which is commonly translated into English as Corn. “How odd,” you might think. “I didn’t think the Romans would even have known that corn exists.”
The word corn is old. It means the main grain of the region. It also predates the old world discovering the maize growing in the new world. The use of the word to mean exclusively Sweetcorn or Maize is a fairly modern North American usage.
You know, there are online annotations to SANDMAN up. If you clicked on http://www.enjolrasworld.com/Miscellaneous/Sandman/sandman30.txt you would learn that,
Panel 6: Corn: What Americans call "corn" is one specific grain, originally native to the Americas. In Pre-Columbian English, though, "corn" meant any grain, particularly the most important local grain, usually wheat, and retains some portion of that meaning in British English today. It is used in that sense here.
I hope this helps.
I think about this every day Neil: “I hope this helps.“
If you're only reading this now, I want you to know I logged into tumblr after 5 years just to say that I am vindicated.
